


the Son of Neptune - extended version

by onedollarpabst



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Whump, basically Hazel and Frank being concerned about Percy, shameless whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-30 02:19:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15742152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onedollarpabst/pseuds/onedollarpabst
Summary: Some short scenes from The Son of Neptune, with a few add-ins of my own.





	the Son of Neptune - extended version

**Author's Note:**

> Basically I extended my favorite parts of the book with more whump for Percy. Most of it's the same as the actual book, i just wanted to add a couple edits of my own. i'm still really new to posting my writing, so please let me know what you think! in a nice way!! please and thanks!!! (also sorry the ending is so abrupt i got bored of concentrating on writing)

(From pages 226-263 of The Son of Neptune)  
Hazel watches as the horsemen cantered past their hiding spot. The centaurs were human from the waist up, palomino from the waist down. They were dressed in barbarian armor of hide and bronze, armed with spears and slings. At first, Hazel thought they were wearing viking helmets. Then she realized they had actual horns jutting from their shaggy hair.  
Lumbering after the centaurs was a battalion of one-eyed ogres, both male and female, each about ten feet tall, wearing armor cobbled out of junkyard metal. Six of the monsters were yoked like oxen, pulling a two-story-tall siege tower fitted with a giant scorpion ballista.  
Percy pressed the sides of his head. “Cyclops. Centaurs. This is wrong. All wrong.”  
Hazel nodded with agreement. She realized that something was going on with Percy. He looked pale and sickly in the moonlight, as if his memories were trying to come back, scrambling his mind in the process.  
She glanced at Frank. “We need to get him back to the boat. The sea will make him feel better.” Percy was looking dazed and unfocused, and Hazel didn’t like the idea of him having to fight in this state. But the huge stretch of grassland lay between them and the beach, and Hazel got the feeling the karpoi wouldn’t stay away forever.  
Below them, the army began to march south again, but Polybotes stood to one side, frowning and sniffing the air.  
“Sea god,” he muttered. To Hazel’s horror, he turned in their direction. “I smell sea god.”  
Percy was shaking. Hazel put her hand on his shoulder and tried to press him flat against the rock. Frank shifted positions, readying his bow.  
“I was born to destroy Neptune. I can sense…” Polybotes frowned, turning his head and shaking out a few more snakes. He growled, took one last look at the dark field, then marched south. Gradually, the last column of monsters passed over the hills and disappeared into the night. Hazel, Frank, and Percy were left alone in the dark, staring across the road at a closed-up convenience store.  
“That was different,” Frank muttered.  
Percy shuttered violently. Hazel knew he needed help, or rest, or something. Seeing that army seemed to have triggered some kind of memory, leaving him shell-shocked. They should get him back to the boat, but crossing that field in the middle of the night wasn’t an option.  
“Let’s go to the store,” she said. “If there’s a goddess inside, maybe she can help us.” they both looked at Percy, who was shaking like he had hypothermia. Frank eyed the dark field, then the store, then seemed to come to the same conclusion she had.  
Frank nodded grimly. “Let’s go.”

As the three of them stumbled through the stores door, lights came on.  
Percy leaned against Hazel, clearly still out of it. He looked worse than ever, like he’d been hit with a sudden flu. His face glistened with sweat. “Sit down…” he muttered. “Maybe water.”  
“Yeah,” Frank said. “Let’s find you a place to rest.”  
The floorboards squeaked as they navigated between isles.  
A girl popped up from behind a row of granola bins. “Can I help you?” her sudden appearance startled Frank and Hazel let out a little gasp. Percy gave no implication he’d noticed the newcomer. She reminded Frank of the college-aged hikers he sometimes saw in Lynn Canyon Park, behind his grandma’s house. She was short and muscular, and wore laced-up boots, cargo shorts, and a t-shirt. She looked young, but her hair was frizzy white, sticking out on either side of her head.  
She smiled at them. “My name’s Fleecy, which in the language of the nebulae it’s actually--” she made a series of crackling and blowing noises that reminded Frank of a thunderstorm giving way to a nice cold front. “But you can call me Fleecy.”  
“Nebulae…” Percy muttered in a daze. “Cloud nymphs.”  
Fleecy beamed. “Oh, i like this one! Usually no one knows about cloud nymphs. But dear me, he doesn’t look so good. Come to the back. My boss wants to meet you. We’ll get you fixed up.”  
At the back of the store, behind a counter with a old-fashioned cash register, stood a middle-aged woman with olive skin, long black hair, rimless glasses, and a t-shirt that read: The Goddess Lives! She wore amber necklaces and turquoise rings. She smelled like rose petals.  
“Hello!” she leaned over the counter. “So glad you’re here. I’m Iris!”  
Percy leaned against the counter. He looked like he was going to be sick. “Iris message,” he said with difficulty. “Can you send one?”  
Frank wasn’t sure he’d heard right. “Iris message?”  
“It’s…”Percy faltered. “Isn’t that something you do?”  
Iris studied Percy more closely. “Interesting. You’re from Camp Jupiter, and yet...oh, I see. Juno is up to her tricks.”  
“What?” Hazel asked.  
Iris glanced at her assistant, Fleecy. They seemed to have a silent conversation. Then the goddess turned back to them with a smile.  
“Fleecy, why don’t you take Percy and Hazel into the back? You can get something to eat while you arrange their messages. And for Percy...yes, memory sickness. I imagine that old Polybotes...well, meeting him in a state of amnesia can’t be good for a child of P-that is to say, Neptune. But don’t worry, i have a tea for that. Go on, Frank and I have a lot to talk about.”  
Hazel would’ve liked to stay together, but one look at Percy told her standing around and arguing wouldn’t do him any good. She glanced at Frank, who nodded slightly. Hazel turned to where Fleecy was waiting near the storage room.  
“Come on Percy, let’s go get something to eat.” Hazel hooked her arm through his and pulled him along beside her. He let her lead him, strangely complacent. Hazel was struck with how childlike and vulnerable he seemed, completely in opposition with the Percy that could control oceans and slay gorgons. She felt strange helping him. He was so much older, and more in command.  
Fleecy led them to some crates of dried berries in the storage room, where they sat down and Percy drank the tea Fleecy gave him. Fleecy assured her it’d help him feel better.

Percy avoided Hazel’s eyes as they sat side by side in the storage room. He was feeling awkward and completely embarrassed about his breakdown. But he was also still feeling dizzy and slightly nauseous, so he stayed quiet and continued to sip the tea the cloud nymph had given him. It tasted like grass, but it was helping his body feel better, but his mind still hurt.  
“How are you feeling Percy? Better?” Her copper eyes blinked up at him, full of-ugh, was what was that, pity? Percy hated feeling so helpless and making her worry, but he really was feeling awful.  
“Yeah, no, i’m fine. Just tired, is all.” Percy glanced around the storage room, taking it in for the first time. Man, he was still really out of it. But he couldn’t help it. When he’d seen those evil centaurs, and cyclopes, it had seemed so wrong, so backward, that he thought his head would explode. And the giant Polybotes...that giant had given him a feeling the opposite of what he felt when he stood in the ocean. Percy’s energy had drained out of him, leaving him weak and feverish, lie his insides were eroding. Even now he felt hot and shaky.  
He’d heard stories about amputees who had phantom pains where their missing legs and arms used to be. That’s how his mind felt-like his missing memories were aching.  
Worst of all, the farther north Percy went, the more those memories faded. He was confused, scared, terrified that he’d lose Annabeth’s face completely.  
He fingered the beads on his necklace, the lead probatio tablet, and the silver ring Reyna had given him. Percy was startled from his thoughts when Hazel placed a hand on his bouncing knee.  
“Percy, why don’t you rest? I’ll wake you up when it’s time to go.” He wanted to argue, but his eyes started to droop. He was afraid he’d pass out from exhaustion. He laid down on top of some empty sacks, trusting Hazel to keep watch while he slept.

***  
Great, it was happening again. Percy doubled over, trying to catch his breath. His stomach and lungs felt like they were on fire, and his vision blurred. He felt Franks hand on his shoulder, but his friends voices were muffled, almost like he was hearing them on a bad phone connection. Then, just as suddenly as it came, the pain stopped. Percy sighed with relief and shut his eyes, waiting for the next part-the memories.  
Ever since Percy’s insane wager against Phineas resulted in him drinking the vial of healing gorgon’s blood, Percy had been getting these brief but painful episodes of “cure”. He’d almost gotten used to the routine: a sudden feeling like broken glass was working its way through his stomach, then a nasuos flood of random bits and pieces of Percy’s past. Most of the time, he remembered names-names of schools he’d gone to, old friends, enemies, but sometimes he got images; looking out over the ocean from a beach (a camp, maybe?), a black horse swooping down from above, a dude with three cups of coffee and legs of a goat.  
This time, Percy got an Annabeth memory. Or, at least he thought it was Annabeth; a girl, blonde, leaning over him with a look of disdain-telling him that he drooled in his sleep. Percy blinked his eyes open to the concerned faces of Frank and Hazel. Percy realized he was gripping the sleeve of Frank’s jacket so tightly, his knuckles had gone white. Percy let go and rubbed his face, feeling the start of a headache behind his eyes.  
“I’m alright. C’mon, let’s keep walking,” he assured them. They reluctantly turned away from him and continued to trudge down the road. Percy was relieved they didn’t try to make him take a break.  
“Did you remember anything?” Hazel inquired.  
“Annabeth-i think. I’m not sure. Everything's still kinda fuzzy.” Percy took a deep breath, willing the headache to go away. He was glad that it seemed like the gorgon blood was working, but it would’ve been nice if the whole process was less stab-wound-to-the-stomach and more instantly-and-painlessly-cured. Still, he wasn’t gonna argue with something that seemed to be providing the only information he had about Annabeth. 

***  
(p. 420-427)  
Percy stepped off the road. “Come on.”  
The ground was squishy but he didn’t think much of it until Hazel shouted, “Percy, no!”  
His next step went straight through the ground. He sank like a stone until the ground closed over his head - and the earth swallowed him.

Hazel stared in shock for a moment. Then her brain frantically sprain into action.  
“Frank, your bow!” she shouted.  
Frank didn’t ask questions. He dropped his pack and slipped the bow off his shoulder.  
“Hold onto one end,” she told Frank. “Don’t let go.”  
She grabbed the other end, took a deep breath, and jumped into the bog. The earth closed over her head.  
The instant she was enveloped the cold hit her, but she was expecting it; Hazel could only hope Percy had held his breath at the shock.  
Below her, something reached up through the murk and grabbed her ankle. She knew it was Percy, suffocating, desperately grasping for a chance at life.  
Hazel was drowning in mud, one hand on the bow, Percy’s hands around her ankles, deep in the darkness. Hazel wiggled the end of the bow frantically. Frank pulled her up with such force it nearly popped her arm out of the socket.  
When she opened her eyes, she was lying in the grass, covered in muck. Percy sprawled at her feet, unmoving. Frank dragged him farther from the muskeg and laid a hand on his chest.  
“Hazel, he’s not breathing!”  
“Oh gods,” she whispered as she rolled over and scrambled to where Frank crouched over Percy. Her brain went into automatic as she began CPR. one, two, three… she was about to reach fifteen when Percy’s body convulsed and he started coughing up mud.  
Hazel sat back on her heels with a sigh of relief.  
“Jeez, Percy, you scared us!” Frank said. He looked as scared as Hazel still felt, despite the averted disaster.  
Percy let out a breathless laugh as he flopped onto his back. “Not the first person to tell me that.” he rubbed his shoulders, still trying to catch his breath. His lips were blue. “You - you saved me, Hazel.” He struggled to sit up but Frank stopped him with a hand to his chest, pressing him back onto the ground.  
“Hey man, just, take a moment. Catch your breath.” Percy dropped his head back down and started wiping some of the mud off.  
Hazel squinted at the sun, glad to see it. The warmth felt good, but it didn’t stop her shivering. Percy shook even worse, and his teeth chattered. At least his lips had returned to a more normal color.  
Percy plucked a clod of mud from his hair. “Any hotels or someplace we can clean off? I mean...hotels that except mud people?”  
“I’m not sure,” Hazel admitted. “But i might know one place we can try.”

The group walked in silence, set on reaching Hubbard Glacier by morning. The massive glacier was a sight to behold. Purple snowcapped mountains marched off in either direction, with clouds floating around their middles like fluffy belts. The glacier was blue and white with streaks of black, so that it looked like a hedge of dirty snow left behind on a sidewalk after the snowplow had gone by, only four million times as large.  
Hazel guessed it couldn’t be more than a mile away, but no matter how quickly they marched, the glacier never seemed to get closer.  
A harsh, painful sounding cough broke the silence, drawing Hazel back from her wandering thoughts. She exchanged a worried glance with Frank as Percy tried to stop the coughing spell. He was failing, miserably, as the coughing continued, forcing the group to a stop.  
It had been several days since the muskeg incident, but Percy still seemed to be struggling to recover from the near death-by-dirt. Hazel was starting to worry he’d gotten pneumonia or something. She was no expert, but something told her swallowing mud wasn’t the healthiest thing for the lungs. Percy had been in the bog for several more minutes then she had, and mostly likely had inhaled a good amount of that freezing muck.  
Percy straightened from where he had been doubled over, wheezing, and waived them on with a smile.  
“Don’t mind me! Must’ve swallowed a bug, or something.” He went to walking past Hazel, but she moved into his way.  
“Maybe we should take a break, my feet are starting to feel like bricks,” Hazel offered. She dropped her pack and sat down on a nearby rock. She wanted to save Percy the embarrassment of having to ask for a breather, but she also was starting to worry about him. She could see the pain in Percy’s face, as well as the annoyance at how long it was taking them to reach Hubbard Glacier. But no matter how hard he tried to ignore it, his breathing wasn’t getting easier.  
Percy looked down at where Hazel sat, then, to her surprise he didn’t argue with her suggestion. Instead, he gratefully dropped onto the rock across from her and Frank and sat, leaned forward onto his knees so that his head hung low, hiding his face. One hand was pressed to his chest, as if holding it could somehow help ease his labored breathing.  
“Percy, are you alright?” Frank asked, as he pulled water bottles from his pack and handed them to the others. Percy took the bottle, but again tried to dismiss their concern with a wave of his hand.  
“I’m fine. Really. Can’t wait to whoop some monster-ass permanently, though.” He turned to Hazel, attempting to change the subject. “How much farther to Hubbard, you think?”  
Hazel squinted at the distant ice form, letting Percy distract them for a moment.  
“We’re close. We should make it by tomorrow morning, if everything goes well.”  
“Since when has things gone in our favor?” Frank snorted. Hazel didn’t answer. Her forehead creased in thought, thinking of what lay before them.  
Percy stood up and hoisted his pack, the others followed suit. As the three friends fell back into line, making their way towards Hubbard Glacier, Hazel couldn’t help but feel impressed with Percy’s stubborn (admittedly pig-headed) determination to finish what he started.


End file.
